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David Hussey, the Australia A batsman, was a stunning omission from Victoria’s Pura Cup side for the match against South Australia at the MCG on Friday. In a month where Hussey has scored 128 and 5 against West Indies and 45 and 50 against Pakistan in tour matches, his state has dropped him as they look for answers following a heavy loss to Western Australia last week.Greg Shipperd, the coach, said Hussey’s lack of runs – he has 257 at 23.36 in six Pura Cup games – forced the change. “David’s record – and I’m sure he’d be the first to admit it – in the four-day version of the game this season is nowhere near what he is capable of,” he said. “He needs to go back to the drawing board and make sure that he tightens up his game a little bit.”Hussey will be replaced by Nick Jewell, who has performed strongly in 2nd XI and club matches, while Shane Harwood returns for Allan Wise and will play his first game since breaking his cheekbone in December. “Our team performance indicates our batting’s going astray and a change needs to be made,” Shipperd said. “We’ve had some players putting pressure on from behind the scenes for a little while now.”Mark Cosgrove, who has scored a miserable 233 runs at 18.58 this season, has been dumped from the South Australia squad. Last season Cosgrove, nicknamed `Baby Boof’ for his heavy likeness to Darren Lehmann, was a glowing find for the Redbacks, but his second summer has been a disaster. Daniel Harris, the 25-year-old batsman, has been recalled after two years away from the side and 772 grade runs at 51.47, including three hundreds in his past three innings.The match will decide the second-year holder of the David Hookes Memorial Trophy, which is determined by points from the four Victoria and South Australia Pura and ING Cup games. Victoria currently leads with nine points to South Australia’s six.South Australia Graham Manou (capt, wk), Daniel Harris, Paul Rofe, Ryan Harris, Nathan Adcock, Trent Kelly, Greg Blewett, Tom Plant, Daniel Cullen, Shaun Tait, Callum Ferguson, Luke Williams.Victoria Cameron White (capt), Matthew Elliott, Jason Arnberger, Brad Hodge, Jon Moss, Nick Jewell, Ian Harvey, Graeme Rummans, Peter Roach (wk), Shane Warne, Mick Lewis, Shane Harwood.

Herschelle Gibbs has withdrawn from the World XI to take on Australia next month due to a knee injury. Gibbs was set to line-up alongside fellow South Africans, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock for the matches in Melbourne and Sydney.However, despite undergoing extensive treatment Gibbs has had to admit defeat in his race to be fit. The trouble initially occurred during the tour of West Indies in April and May and was then exacerbated during his stint with Lashings, the celebrity team based in England, during the summer.Gibbs told News24: “I am withdrawing from the World XI side. I have just told the manager Goolam Rajah (who is also the South African manager) that I won’t be able to play. I have worked with the Western Province physio since my return from my Lashings duty, but I am still feeling pain. I have also gone for an MRI scan where it showed that I had damaged the cartilage behind my right knee cap.”The other problem facing Gibbs in the near future is South Africa’s one-day tour of India in November. Indian authorities have said that they are unable to grant Gibbs and Nicky Boje an amnesty as the match-fixing case remains open.Gibbs has said that he will once again be forced to miss the tour – he pulled out of the Test series last year – if the Indian police do not co-operate. “It’s never nice to miss games, but I don’t think it would be a very wise decision to risk it. We have done everything we can on our side, so it is really up to them. It’s up to them and whatever our CEO (Gerald Majola) can convince them to adhere to. But if they don’t want to co-operate, then we are going to have to remain at home.”

He may be the most influential man in Pakistan, but even Pervez Musharraf needs to buy a ticket to watch the cricket. According to the Times of India, he paid Rs 4500 (Rs 1500 per ticket) to watch the one-day international at Rawalpindi along with his family. The newspaper quoted Shahryar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, as saying: “He is patron-in-chief of the PCB and doesn’t need tickets to watch matches. But he overruled the PCB request and paid for himself and his family.”* * *The News, a Pakistan daily, reports that about 1000 Indian fans will walk across the border in hte next few days to watch the one-dayers over the weekend. “About 500 Indian spectators will cross the Wagah border on foot on Friday,” said Alamzeb Khan, a border-force officer for the Sutlej Rangers. “They are coming to witness the one-day international matches here.” An similar number are expected to come in before the last two ODIs in Lahore, on March 21 and 24.* * *Sourav Ganguly’s request to extend the boundary ropes was allowed at Rawalpindi, but he wasn’t quite as successful at Peshawar. Tariq Rana, the head curator of the Arbab Niaz Stadium, confirmed that Ganguly had made a similar request here: “Ganguly insisted that since the boundary on either side of the squares was at 75 yards and the boundary ropes in front of the wickets were just 70 to 71 yards, they should also be extended by five to six yards,” Tariq said, according to . “His argument was that if the boundary rope was extended it would allow the batsmen to run for longer periods.” The request was turned down, though, as the curator felt that would leave very little space between the ropes and the fencing, increasing the possibilities of injuries to fielders.* * *In his column in the Asian Age, Rajan Bala suggests that the Indians should gamble on playing an extra spinner to curb the free-stroking Pakistani batsmen. The Indian bowlers were tonked around in the first two ODIs, and were struck a further blow with the injury to Ashish Nehra, but Bala sees this as an opportunity to innovate. “It is in crisis situations like this, when there is a shortage of quality and penetrative bowlers, that one must be innovative,” he writes. “It is all about pulling off a bluff or two.” Bala recalled the 1992 World Cup, when Martin Crowe experimented with Dipak Patel’s offspinners at the start of the innings. “This is not to suggest that either Ramesh Powar or [Murali] Kartik be given the new ball. But if Ganguly took the chance he might flummox a batsman like [Shahid] Afridi who is capable of much indiscretion.”

It’s been ten years since Brian Lara played in Jaipur and things havecertainly changed at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. Observing the face-liftat the ground, one of the journalists remembered the horror years – in the ’90s,when pressmen were locked inside the media area, to prevent fans fromforcing themselves into the zone. The door used to be opened only during thebreaks and, just in case you had the bad luck of ending up with anupset tummy, you were doomed.Going by the indications from the Rajasthan Cricket Association, nobody isgoing to be jailed tomorrow. Worryingly, there aren’t expected to be toomany people dying to get into the stadium when West Indies and Bangladeshclash to qualify for the main draw of the Champions Trophy. Bangladeshshowed a lot of promising signs in their opening game against Sri Lankabut tomorrow they’d need that and much more.Going by Dav Whatmore’s assessment, the pitch here is likely to behave like a SriLankan sandpit. “It certainly looks different than the one at Mohali. I’mnot sure of the history here – there hasn’t been a lot of history in thisoval – and I’m not sure if it will have the same amount of bounce. I’malso not sure about amount of turn in the pitch.” Of the nine ODIs here,five have been won by the team chasing, including the lastgame when Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s unbeaten 183 helped India hunt down299. A factor that would play a role tomorrow is the dew but, consideringthat it’s the first game under lights, one can only wait and watch.The toss may not matter too much for West Indies – considering the mightof their batting line-up – but it’s the fitness of their players thatremained a worry. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Runako Morton – who had suffered aviral fever in Mohali – hadn’t yet recovered while Dwayne Smith, whoincurred the same problem here, missed the net session on match eve. ImranKhan, the media manager, stressed that none of them had been ruled out,adding that missing the nets is no indication of availability for thematch. Bangladesh used three left-arm spinners in the previous game andthey could serve them well if the track starts to take some turn tomorrow.

Not only do West Indies need to win but also need to do so emphatically.Well, finishing the game even before the lights came on – as they didwhile whipping Zimbabwe at Ahmedabad – might have been stretching it toofar but Lara reiterated the need to win with handicaps. “If you playagainst a team lower ranked than yourselves, you must be able to giveyourself a handicap,” he added. “Bangladesh can play very good cricket butit’s important that we win emphatically, it’s important that we put thedistance between them and us. It’s not about chasing down a target in acertain number of overs or anything, just that you would know when you’reforcing yourself on the opposition. That’s what we’re looking to dotomorrow.”But is anyone going to watch? The Rajasthan Cricket Association decided toprovide an incentive for viewers. They sold three tickets in combination,for the two qualifying games along with the India-England game, and pricedit at the same rate as one (almost equivalent to buy one, get two free).Unfortunately it didn’t work and they finally began selling India-Englandsingle tickets today, which ended up being lapped up like hot cakes. Thereseems to be only one solution to eliminate the risk of empty stands. Turnback the clock, replace pressmen with public and lock them inside thestadium for a day. And just to cover all bases, don’t even provide thebreak for lunch.Teams (probable)1 Chris Gayle, 2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 3 Runako Morton, 4 Brian Lara(capt), 5 Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-cap) 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Marlon Samuels, 8Wavell Hinds, 9 Carlton Baugh (wk), 10 IDR Bradshaw, 11 Jerome Taylor.1 Shahriar Nafees, 2 Mohammad Ashraful, 3Aftab Ahmed, 4 Saqibul Hasan, 5Habibul Bashar (capt), 6 Farhad Reza, 7 Khaled Mashud (wk), 8 MohammadRafique, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Syed Rasel.

As befits a player whose formative years in the Australian side were spent under the caustic leadership of Ian Chappell, Rod Marsh earned a reputation for blunt talking. Age might have mellowed him a little, but he stills calls it as he sees it, and he has no doubts about the mountain he has to climb if he is to help England challenge Australia’s dominance of the game.”I would suggest they’re going to have to get a wriggle on,” Marsh, in India as coach of the England A side, admitted when asked about the chances of any success in the next Ashes series next summer.”They’ve had it too easy for too long, some of these guys,” he continued “There is a distinct lack of discipline. I can’t see what’s wrong with telling the truth. Maybe people don’t like hearing the truth.”A heavy defeat in England A’s first match prompted a characteristic broadside from Marsh . “To me, there was a team that looked like they knew how to play cricket and a team that had no idea. It was a very poor performance,” he fumed. “We needed to spend some time in the middle but these guys think they are millionaires and have to play a shot a ball. The sooner they learn they can’t, the better off everyone will be.” He immediately ordered a re-match the following day. England lost again.”Every time something goes wrong, they have a team meeting then think the problem is solved,” he explained. “But they are the only ones who can help themselves and until they realise that, there is no point them being here.”Marsh believes that if the youngsters are hungry and pushing for places in the side then it will have a knock-on effect of making the senior players more conscious of the need to perform. But he warned that “at this point in time, they’re not pushing hard enough. If they were, the England team would be performing 100% flat out all the time. They’ve got to say to the selectors, ‘pick me’, like Ed Smith did last year.”The games in India will be tough but, typically, Marsh would have it no other way. “If we came over here and there was no challenge then it would be quite boring for me,” he said. “The challenge is to help these blokes improve. They’re still babes really. They haven’t seen much of the world.”

Five Continents took a step closer to reaching the semi-finals of the Open League at the weekend with a seven wicket win against Ljubljana CC at Markommannenstrasse on Saturday, their win putting them ahead 14 points ahead of United Nations CC, who have a game in hand over them, and whom they must play in August, which looks like being the crunch fixture in deciding who will take the fourth qualifying spot. An FCCC victory in the fixture would also close the door on United Nations’ bid for a semi-final berth. Five Continents are currently in good form, with Sunil Kauschal also scoring a century in a friendly match, and the team having knocked Vienna CC out of the ACA Trophy.Lords CC recovered from their shock defeat at the hands of Ljubljana CC in Valburga to register a commanding 140 run win over Pakistan CC, with half centuries by Ashwani Sharma and Deepak Sharma, as well as 40s from Wasif Mohammed and Ajay Grover and a massive 69 extras seeing them post 319 for 9 – believed to be an Open League record for matches at Markommannenstrasse. Pakistan in reply fell well short of the required target, with Ali Zulfiqar, 47, the highest scorer, with Wasif Mohammed taking four wickets.The thriller of the weekend was between Ljubljana CC and Pakistan Falken CC, on Sunday at Seebarn. Ljubljana batted first and reached 293-7 thanks to a century by Mark Oman (105*) – the first for Ljubljana CC, ably supported by Dan Ryan (40) and Tom Furness (32). With Sameer Chopra (Bobby) on great form, and with a glorious innings of 129, for a while things looked as though Pakistan Falken CC might have been on target for a stunning victory, although once Bobby fell, Ljubljana were able to clean up the PFCC tail, to record a victory by 68 runs, with Mark Oman taking three wickets to become the second Ljubljana CC player to take 100 wickets for the club and to claim 13 points lifting them up the league table.Pakistan CC has already cancelled its trip to Velden for a fixture against Ljubljana CC and a friendly against Salzburg CC, the latter replacing league opponents Zagreb CC, who had in turn announced that they would not be able to field a team against Pakistan CC. The big match of the forthcoming weekend will be Lords CC against Vienna CC, with a win for either side essential if they want to have any hope of overtaking Concordia CC in the league table.

Every year before New Zealand Cricket’s annual general meeting, a brief ritual takes place. It lasts only a few minutes but it is of genuine significance in the development of cricket in New Zealand.”It” is the annual meeting of the New Zealand Cricket Foundation. The independent body was set up in 1979 with the aim of providing assistance in areas normally beyond the reach of the work of New Zealand Cricket (NZC). Among its committee and executive are some real movers and shakers in the cricket and business world.President is long-time New Zealand cricket benefactor, businessman Sir Ron Brierley, while the secretary is the chairman of NZC and chief executive of the National Bank, Sir John Anderson. Elected members of the committee are: former commentator Iain Gallaway, another notable benefactor in John Oakley, cricket historian and former New Zealand selector Don Neely and former international John Morrison. NZC’s four appointed members of the Foundation are: former international and co-founder of Sky Television Terry Jarvis, NZC board member Denis Currie, chief executive Martin Snedden and NZC operations manager John Reid, both of them former internationals.Over the years, the body has donated $NZ4.15 million to groups around New Zealand for a variety of reasons. They have provided permanent wickets or practice wickets to a total of $NZ2.09 million while also assisting with coaching, coaching co-ordinators and development, funding New Zealand Young players to Lord’s, travel grants and scholarships. They have also assisted ins funding New Zealand Youth tours, Kiwi Cricket and specialist clinics, and in other ways.In the past year, the Foundation contributed $30,000 to Canterbury Cricket’s indoor facility at Iversen Terrace while every year it presents the Sir Jack Newman Award in honour of one of the original members of the Foundation who had a transport empire in the Nelson region, to a person who has made a significant contribution to youth cricket in New Zealand. This year’s winner was Marlborough man Mike Rhodes who has given 33 years of service to junior cricket in his region.In the past year, the Foundation had a surplus of $NZ281,139, its first surplus for some time, mainly due to a gain on sale of a proportion of GPG shares held by the Foundation, while NZC also made two grants of $25,000 to the Foundation.Examples of the spread of pitch funding can be seen from the following list: (all $NZ)$15,000 – Taranaki Cricket Association,$9000 – Northern Districts Cricket Association,$7500 – Dunedin Cricket Association,$6000 – Bay of Plenty Cricket Association,$4500 – Burnside West – University Cricket Club, Mount Aspiring College,$4000 – Hillcrest High School Cricket,$3000 – Adams House: Christchurch, Campion College, Ellesmere College, Hamilton Cricket Association, Morrinsville Cricket Association, Oamaru Cricket Club, St Andrew’s College, St Bede’s College, Southwell School, Te Puru School: Thames, Waimea College,$2000 – Merivale Papanui Cricket Club,$1750 – Old Collegians Cricket Club,$1500 – Akaroa Cricket Club, Westport South School, Karamea Area School, Burwood School, Cromwell Cricket Club, Greenmeadows School, Highlands Intermediate School, Karamu Intermediate School, Mahora School, Manurewa Central School, Mauku Cricket Club, Merivale School, Mount Anglem College, Taitoko School, Taradale Intermediate School, Te Aroha College, Te Puke Cricket Club, Whangarei and Districts Cricket Association,$1250 – Picton Cricket Club, West Coast Cricket Association,$1000 – Papamoa School,$600 – Tamahere School, Vardon School.

Brett Lee has declared that he is fit for a Test recall, after bowling 10 overs for New South Wales against Victoria in an ING Cup match. Lee bowled for the first time in six weeks after resuming from an abdominal tear and clean-up surgery to his left ankle, and said he was available for the second Test against India in Adelaide, starting Friday.Lee said, “I’ll keep my fingers crossed, I think I’m definitely ready to play, I knew that if I was to get through these 10 overs and do it well I’m certainly thinking I’m ready to play.”While Glenn McGrath is struggling to overcome his own ankle surgery, Lee made good progress in the match which ended in a thrilling tie. Lee nearly had a wicket in his very first ball but the umpire turned down a huge lbw appeal.Lee added, “I felt really fit out there, I thought the ball came out at good speed and I was really impressed. The first ball of the match, I thought this was too good to be true – but the umpire didn’t give it out unfortunately, he said it was sliding down [the leg side], but that happens – but I was really pleased the way the ball came out.”Mark Waugh, who captained NSW for the first time, also felt that Lee was ready to resume at Test level. Waugh said, “We know what sort of bowler he is, he’s a matchwinning bowler so yeah I would [play him].It was pretty good first-up, there wasn’t much in the wicket for him, so I thought he bowled well.”Lee will play in the Pura Cup match against Victoria at the MCG starting Friday if not selected for the second Test.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, who toiled long and hard in the heat and humidity of Colombo, to score a total of 343 unbeaten runs against Sri Lanka, should take a good rest before he studies the statistical profile of his feats.It would be enough to tire out the most ardent statistician. But the nature of his achievement does make an outstanding impression on the record booksA complete statistical breakdown of Stephen Fleming’s 274 not out and 69 not out against Sri Lanka follows: (Statistics compiled by Duane Pettet)It was Fleming’s highest score, and first double century, in Test and first-class cricket. It surpassed his 174 not out against Sri Lanka, also at Colombo, in the summer of 1997/98 and was the highest score made by a New Zealander overseas. It headed off Glenn Turner’s 259 against the West Indies at Georgetown, Guyana in 1971/72.Clearly he enjoys scoring his centuries away from home because four of his five Test centuries have been scored overseas.The innings was his 20th first-class century.New Zealand players have now scored 11 double centuries, and Fleming was the ninth individual. Turner and Mathew Sinclair have scored two each.His score was the 28th equal highest individual innings in Tests and was the second highest individual innings for New Zealand and by anyone against Sri Lanka. Martin Crowe holds both the highest honours with his 299 at the Basin Reserve in Wellington in 1990/91.Only Sanath Jayasuriya’s 340 for the home side against India in 1997/98 ranks higher among scores made on Sri Lankan soil.The innings bettered John F Reid’s 180 made at the Colombo Cricket Club ground in 1983/84 as the highest by a New Zealand in Sri Lanka and was also the highest score in Tests at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium, supplanting Aravinda de Silva’s 206 for Sri Lanka against Bangladesh last year.Befitting his status among Test cricket’s captains, the innings was the sixth highest by a captain, and the second highest by a New Zealand captain.It was the ninth equal highest innings by a left-handed batsman in Tests and surpassed another of New Zealand great Bert Sutcliffe’s records as the highest innings by a New Zealand left-hander. Sutcliffe scored 230 not out against India at Delhi in 1955/56.His score was the eighth highest by a No 3 batsman in Tests and headed Sinclair’s 214 on debut, against the West Indies in Wellington in 1999/00 as the highest by a New Zealand No 3.It was also the ninth highest unbeaten innings in Tests and removed Bryan Young’s 267 not out against Sri Lanka in 1996/97 as the highest New Zealand unbeaten innings.Only Ken Rutherford (317), Mark Richardson (306) and Crowe have made higher first-class scores for New Zealand. It was the 12th highest innings by a New Zealander in first-class cricket outside of games for overseas sides. And it was the 16th highest innings in New Zealand first-class cricket.Of the 118 runs scored in boundaries (28 fours and one six), that rated as the seventh most runs scored in boundaries in a Test for New Zealand and the third most runs run in a Test for New Zealand. He ran 156 of his innings. Turner ran 171 of his 259 runs at Georgetown while Crowe ran 165 of his 299 at Wellington. Fleming had to run 205 of his runs in the match overall, which heads Crowe’s 187 at Wellington as the most by a New Zealander.The effort of scoring 162 runs on the second day was the fourth highest number of runs in a day by a New Zealander in Tests. Ahead of him were: 222 by Nathan Astle on day four against England at Christchurch in 2001/02, 173 by Crowe on day five against Sri Lanka in Wellington and 169 by Ian Smith on day one at Auckland against India in 1989/90.His 653 minute innings was the fourth longest by a New Zealander in Tests after Turner’s 704 minutes against the West Indies in Georgetown, Reid’s 685 minutes in Colombo and Mark Greatbatch’s 655 minutes against Australia at Perth in 1989/90.His 956 minutes at the crease throughout the match easily passed Greatbatch’s 876 minutes against Australia as the most time at the crease by a New Zealander in Tests.It was the second longest time at the crease in all Test cricket, behind Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad who batted for a minimum of 970 minutes against the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados in 1957/58. This was because the time for his 17 runs in the first innings of the match in which he scored 337 is not known.In the game Fleming spent 1610 minutes – nearly 27 hours – all but 45 minutes of the match on the field of play.Interestingly, New Zealand has four players in the top 10 of players who have spent the longest time at the batting crease: Fleming (956), Greatbatch (876), Geoff Howarth (835) against England at Auckland in 1977/78 and John Wright (828) against the West Indies at Wellington in 1986/87.He faced 710 balls during the match – the equivalent of 118.2 overs. Of this he faced 267 deliveries (44.3 overs) from off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, taking 118 runs off his bowling without being dismissed.His unbeaten 343 is the 12th most runs scored by a batsmen in a Test and the highest for New Zealand, beating the 329 scored by Crowe at Wellington.It is also the second most runs scored in a Test by an individual without being dismissed, behind the 365 Gary Sobers hit in his solitary innings for the West Indies against Pakistan at Kingston in 1957/58.His current run is a record for the most runs between dismissals by a New Zealand batsman, ahead of Crowe’s single innings of 299 at Wellington. He has a chance to extend it when New Zealand play the second Test at Kandy, which starts on Saturday. The world record of 490 is held by Sobers, who added an innings of 125 in the Test following the Kingston knock.Of a miscellaneous nature, his two innings in the game mean that he is now 86 runs away from being the latest New Zealander to score 10,000 first-class runs. Eighteen others have achieved the feat.His double century was the highest score by anyone since Inzamam-ul-Haq’s 329 for Pakistan against New Zealand at Lahore last year.Fleming became the first New Zealand captain to lead the side in 50 Tests and the eighth player in the world to achieve the feat. He is now sixth equal with Viv Richards from the West Indies and Mark Taylor from Australia.His 172-run partnership for the second wicket is a record for New Zealand against Sri Lanka. Previously the mark was 140 by Bryan Young and Matt Horne at Dunedin in 1996/97.Fleming was the sixth youngest of the New Zealanders to have scored double centuries being 30 years and 25 days when he reached the mark. More than half of the New Zealand batsman to reach the milestone have been aged over 30.New Zealand’s 515/7 declared was New Zealand’s ninth highest total, the third highest of its scores against Sri Lanka and New Zealand’s highest total in Sri Lanka. The previous highest was 459 at the Colombo’s Cricket Club ground in 1983/84.